If you thought the Mormon Church hierarchy was softening on marriage equality, you were wrong. At a conference held on Sunday and viewed by millions in person and on a live Internet feed, LDS leaders reaffirmed the religion's vehement opposition to letting loving same-sex couples find equality under the law.

Human laws may change to include same-sex marriage, but moral laws don’t, two high-ranking Mormon leaders said Sunday.

God meant marriage for a man and a woman, they said. Anything else is sin.

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These pressures "have already permitted same-gender marriages in various states and nations," Oaks told 20,000 Mormons gathered in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City and millions more watching worldwide via telecasts and the Internet. "Other pressures would confuse gender or homogenize those differences between men and women that are essential to accomplish God’s great plan of happiness."

An LDS eternal perspective does not allow Mormons "to condone such behaviors or to find justification in the laws that permit them," said the apostle, a former Utah Supreme Court justice. "And, unlike other organizations that can change their policies and even their doctrines, our policies are determined by the truths God has declared to be unchangeable."

The LDS stance against same-sex marriage might be misunderstood, elicit "accusations of bigotry" or trigger "invasions of our free exercise of religion," he said. But "we should remember our first priority — to serve God — and, like our pioneer predecessors, push our personal handcarts forward with the same fortitude they exhibited."